Top Ten RPG Composers - Your Opinion

[Chris]

In this thread, please list who you consider top ten RPG composers. It's up to you what criteria you use, e.g. whether prolificness, influence, or personal considerations are most important to you. I'll see if I can tally up the results between three sites (SEMO, STC, VGMdb) and then post up an interesting feature about it.

------------------------------

Here are my own. Those who achieved top places are those who I felt were the most influential, as well as competent. Only ten places, so I had to leave out some who are worthy of great consideration, like Hiroki Kikuta, Yoko Shimomura, Mieko Ishikawa, Kohei Tanaka, and Miki Higashino.

1) Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon)
2) Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest, Shiren the Wanderer, EVO)
3) Yuzo Koshiro (Ys, Oasis, Etrian Odyssey)
4) Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono, Xeno, Soma Bringer)
5) Jeremy Soule (Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars, Secret of Evermore)
6) Motoi Sakuraba (Tales, Star Ocean, Baten Kaitos)
7) Hitoshi Sakimoto (Ivalice Alliance, Vagrant Story, Odin Sphere)
8) Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia, Lunar, Langrisser)
9) Shoji Meguro (Shin Megami Tensei)
10) Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy X, Unlimited SaGa)

[Blitz Lunar]

1. Jun Ishikawa (Arcana, Alcahest)
2. Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Soukaigi)
3. Motoaki Takenouchi (Shining Wisdom, Shining Force II, Landstalker, Granhistoria)
4. Masashi Hamauzu (Saga Frontier II, Final Fantasy X, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)
5. Junya Nakano (Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy X, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)
6. Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)
7. Shogo Sakai (Mother 3)
8. Noriko Matsueda (Front Mission, Bahamut Lagoon)
9. Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, Front Mission: Gun Hazard)
10. Yoko Shimomura (Front Mission, Super Mario RPG, Legend of Mana)

[Jormungand]

I guess I'm most impressed by originality, personality, confidence, daring, and just general devotion to one's art. I don't think I've ever successfully produced a sorted top ten list that's accurate to any degree, but here goes:

1. Saori Kobayashi (Panzer Dragoon Saga, Hoshigami Remix, Sylvan Tale)
2. Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy X & XIII, SaGa Frontier II)
3. Hiroki Kikuta (Seiken Densetsu 2 & 3, Soukaigi)
4. Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross, Tsugunai: Atonement, World Destruction)
5. Hiroshi Tamawari (Vandal Hearts I & II, Azure Dreams, Twinbee RPG)
6. Yoshino Aoki (Breath of Fire III & IV, Suikoden Tierkreis, Luminous Arc 2)
7. Hitoshi Sakimoto (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire V)
8. Kouhei Tanaka (Bounty Sword, Sakura Taisen series, Resonance of Fate)
9. Miki Higashino (Suikoden 1 & 2, Vandal Hearts)
10. Junya Nakano (Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy X, Musashi: Samurai Legend)

[Cedille]

Guess I'm the only one who thinks Kenji Ito should be within the Top 10. Not that he's always clicked with my personal preference, but his career was, if not paramount, pretty important to the Eastern RPG history.

1) Nobuo Uematsu
2) Koichi Sugiyama
3) Yasunori Mitsuda
4) Kenji Ito
5) Motoi Sakuraba
6) Yuzo Koshiro
7) Yoko Shimomura
8) Hitoshi Sakimoto
9) Noriyuki Iwadare
10 Shoji Meguro

[Raizen1984]

Top Ten Best RPG Composers:

1. Masashi Hamauzu
2. Hiroki Kikuta
3. Yasunori Mitsuda
4. Saori Kobayashi
5. Junya Nakano
6. Yoshitaka Hirota
7. Noriko Matsueda
8. Jun Ishikawa
9. Yayoi Wachi
10. Hitoshi Sakimoto

Give these people your money.

[Teioh]

Great idea. I tried to pick the most influential composers and put them in order


Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy series, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon)
Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest series, Shiren the Wanderer)
Kentaro Haneda (Wizardry series)
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono series, Xenogears)
Yuzo Koshiro (Ys, Etrian Odyssey)
Masaharu Iwata (Might & Magic, Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics)
Hitoshi Sakimoto (Breath of Fire V, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII)
Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa, Seiken Densetsu)
Masato Koda (Monster Hunter, Wild Arms)
Kouhei Tanaka (Sakura Wars, Lennus, Alundra)


Honorable mentions to Hiroki Kikuta, Yoko Shimomura, Yasunori Shiono, Tomoyuki Hamada & Tenpei Sato.

1st edit: I had to cut Hiroki Kikuta for Kouhei Tanaka :-/
2nd edit: more changes, reduced to 10 people.

[Jedi QuestMaster]

1. Ryuji Sasai
2. Ryuji Sasai
3. Ryuji Sasai
4. Ryuji Sasai
5. Ryuji Sasai
6. Ryuji Sasai
7. Ryuji Sasai
8. Ryuji Sasai
9. Ryuji Sasai
10. All the composers for Chrono Trigger - tied

[jdkluv]

1. Yuzo Koshiro
2. Mieko Ishikawa
3. Hayato Sonoda (and the rest of 'em, like Shirakawa, Ishibashi etc)
4. Nobuo Uematsu
5. Seock Jin-Lee (and the rest of 'em)
6. Yasunori Mitsuda
7. Hitoshi Sakimoto
8. Go Shiina
9. Hiroki Kikuta
10. Motoi Sakuraba


Strictly not 10 but still.....

WHAT FALCOM BIAS?

God even the 30th in my list would be SHEER GENIUS.

[Boco]

Guess I'm the only one who thinks Kenji Ito should be within the Top 10. Not that he's always clicked with my personal preference, but his career was, if not paramount, pretty important to the Eastern RPG history.

Ito's on my list over at SEMO. :3 He does tend to be a little inconsistent (or maybe too consistent?) , but I've generally enjoyed his work and consider him a skilled and influential VGM composer.

Then again... I've also got Naoshi Mizuta on my list. So make of that what you will. XD

[Lowe]

1. Yuzo Koshiro
2. Noriyuki Iwadare
3. Nobuo Uematsu
4. Ryuji Sasai
5. Yasunori Mitsuda
6. Noriko Matsueda

That's all I can think of, really. Was considering adding Sakuraba, while I like some of his stuff I don't think he deserves to be in a top 10.

Oh dear, forgot one. More might come to me later.

[Secret Squirrel]

1. Kenneth W. Arnold (Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V)
2. Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy series, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon)
3. Miyoko Kobayashi (Terranigma, Langrisser)
4. Hiroki Kikuta (Seiken Densetsu 2 & 3, Soukaigi)
5. David R. Watson (Ultima VI, Ultima VII the Black Gate, Ultima VII Serpent Isle)
6. Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross, Tsugunai: Atonement, World Destruction)
7. Jeremy Soule (Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars, Secret of Evermore)
8. Yoshitaka Hirota (Shadow Hearts series)
9. soundTeMP (Ragnarok Online, Granado Espada) [I know it's a unit, but we lack individual credits]
10. Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa, Seiken Densetsu)

I know it's a funny choice for No.1, but the concept of RPG music wasn't really defined until he came along.

[Datschge]

Trying to do a list based on influence on music direction in JRPGs, chonologically:

1983: Kenneth W. Arnold (great pick, SS)
1984: Junko Ozawa
1985: Kentaro Haneda
1986: Koji Kondo (by the way of Zelda, corner case, but I think his influence on JRPGs can't be denied)
1986: Koichi Sugiyama
1986: Takahito Abe
1987: Yuzo Koshiro
1987: Nobuo Uematsu
1989: Motoi Sakuraba
1990: Kenji Ito

[niki]

1. Kenneth W. Arnold (Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V)

aha <3

In the same vein, Tim Tully for Might & Magic 4 & 5 ;)

Also, nice to see Mieko Ishikawa mentionned in there ~

[jdkluv]

Also, nice to see Mieko Ishikawa mentionned in there ~

We gots taste yo'! :)

[Chris]

I know it's a funny choice for No.1, but the concept of RPG music wasn't really defined until he came along.

Interesting choice, I agree. It has often been said that Koichi Sugiyama established the format of RPG scores, e.g. in this nice RPGFan article (http://www.rpgfan.com/editorials/2008/11-29.html). But to what extent were these elements already established the composers you and Datschge listed? I'm not generally familiar with pre-1986 RPG scores.

1986: Koji Kondo (by the way of Zelda, corner case, but I think his influence on JRPGs can't be denied)

Yeah, Zelda music definitely had a major influence on RPG composers, even if it wasn't necessarily an RPG itself. I guess same applies for Shin Onigashima...

Guess I'm the only one who thinks Kenji Ito should be within the Top 10. Not that he's always clicked with my personal preference, but his career was, if not paramount, pretty important to the Eastern RPG history.

It wasn't a deliberate rejection on my part, but rather he just didn't come to my mind at all. I don't think his music was as influential or impressive as some others, but he definitely warrants consideration at least. I agree that Kenji Ito's influence is generally underestimated in the Western game music community though.

[Jormungand]

Chris, I noticed that some of us wrote our list based on personal preference, where others focused on composers who most influenced the genre. I'm not sure what your goal for this data is, but I wonder if this divide will skew the results you're looking for?

[KeyLogic]

9. soundTeMP (Ragnarok Online, Granado Espada) [I know it's a unit, but we lack individual credits].

Yup. soundTeMP for sure is one of KeyLogic's favorites as well. Me also likes their work on Seal Online and Neo Steam.

As for individual credits:

ESTi (La Tale, Tales Weaver)
Ryo Kunihiko (Aion ~The Tower Of Eternity~)

[Gaia]

1. Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy Series)
2. soundTeMP (Ragnarok Online, Granado Espada)
3. Hiroki Kikuta (Seiken Densetsu, Soukaigi, Koudelka)
4. Falcom Sound Team JDK (Ys, Sorcerian, Xanadu)
5. Yuki Kajiura (Xenosaga, but majorly for anime music)
6. Yasunori Mitsuda (Xeno Series, Chrono Series)
7. Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy Series)
8. Kenji Ito (SaGa Series)
9. Yoko Shimomura (Legend of Mana, Super Mario RPG)
10. Noriyuki Iwadare (Lunar, Grandia)

[niki]

Not like ZUN composed for RPGs though right ? But yeah, totally agree about the mass hysteria comment aha ~

[jdkluv]

Yup. soundTeMP for sure is one of KeyLogic's favorites as well. Me also likes their work on Seal Online and Neo Steam.

As for individual credits:

ESTi (La Tale, Tales Weaver)
Ryo Kunihiko (Aion ~The Tower Of Eternity~)

I thought Seock Jin-Lee, the main composer for Ragnarok Online was worthy of a mention. Also, Ryo Kunihiko was in soundTeMP?!

[Dag]

1. Hitoshi Sakimoto
2. Shoji Meguro
3. Yoshitaka Hirota
4. Masashi Hamauzu
5. Motoi Sakuraba
6. Yasunori Mitsuda
7. Kenji Ito
8. Hiroki Kikuta
9. Yoko Shimomura
10. Nobuo Uematsu

[KeyLogic]

Also, Ryo Kunihiko was in soundTeMP?!

Oops. Late reply.

Anyway, he may be under a different alias or something, but according to soundTeMP's website, Aion ~The Tower Of Eternity~ Original Sound Track soundtrack is listed as having some affiliation to the group. Perhaps KeyLogic may have made a wrongful assumption? :p

[Vert1]

Not in ranked order:

1. Motoi Sakuraba
2. Takanori Arisawa
3. Yutaka Minobe
4. Anyone involved with original Breath of Fire soundtrack
5. Masaharu Iwata
6. ???
7. Yuzo Koshiro
8. Shoji Meguro
9. ???
10. Yasunori Mitsuda

[knighTeen87]

My order:

1)Koichi Sugiyama
2)Nobuo Uematsu
3)Yasunori Mitsuda
4)Yoko Shimomura
5)Kenji Ito
6)Sound Kids&Tsukasa Saitoh
7)Hitoshi Sakimoto
8)Tsuyoshi Sekiyo
9)Miki Hagashino
10)Shoji Meguro

[Another Soundscape]

List with my personal favorite series/games listed.

1.) Kota Hoshino (Evergrace, Lost Kingdoms)
2.) Yoshitaka Hirota (Shadow Hearts)
3.) Gust Sound Team (Atelier Iris, Ar Tonelico)
4.) Kimitaka Matsumae (Jade Cocoon)
5.) Matt Uelmen (Diablo II, Torchlight)
6.) Junichi Masuda (Pokémon)
7.) Shoji Meguro (Shin Megami Tensei III, Persona 3)
8.) Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI-X)
9.) Ryu Umemoto (Eclipse, Xenon)
10.) Masashi Hamauzu (Musashiden II, Final Fantasy XIII)

[jdkluv]

Oops. Late reply.

Anyway, he may be under a different alias or something, but according to soundTeMP's website, Aion ~The Tower Of Eternity~ Original Sound Track soundtrack is listed as having some affiliation to the group. Perhaps KeyLogic may have made a wrongful assumption? :p

Perhaps KeyLogic may have made a RIGHTFUL assumption. Who knows? Not jdkluv, that's for sure! :p

[Secret Squirrel]

Oh hey, I forgot about this. I'm looking forward to seeing what Chris does with it.

[Mika]

A little late to the game, but here's a list. I had some difficulty to actually think of 10 names at first, but then ended having to cut people out. I don't like picking favourites because it all depends so much on the day.

1. Hitoshi Sakimoto
2. Masashi Hamauzu
3. Yoshitaka Hirota
4. Jeremy Soule
5. Jun Ishikawa
6. Miki Higashino
7. Michiko Naruke
8. Matt Uelmen
9. Yoshino Aoki
10. Naoki Kodaka (Albert Odyssey Gaiden is an RPG, right?)

Mentions to at least Hiroki Kikuta, Kohei Tanaka, Yoko Shimomura and Noriyuki Iwadare. I'm so terrible with names.

[Chris]

Hi all! Thanks for participating in this survey. I think it's been very interesting. The article is now at last up, featuring the top 20 plus commentary:

http://squareenixmusic.com/features/topten/rpgcomposers.shtml

Any thoughts on the results? Expected or surprising? Positive surprises? Disappointments?

I'm personally pretty pleased and think the results fit quite well with what I expected, plus my own listings. I would have wanted at least one Western composer and would have switched Hamauzu with Sugiyama. But overall, pretty cool.

Anyway, sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy it. Hopefully do something like this again soon.

[pepak]

Well, some time ago I wanted to take a part in this topic and started going through my soundtrack collection, listing works and composers. And to my great surprise, I couldn't come up with one composer who would be worthy of a place in a top-ten. I am still not quite sure how it could happen, considering that RPG is perhaps my favorite genre and that music became about the most important aspect of games for me, but there it is. One problem that I did identify is that most RPG composers that I know seem to only have one great RPG title with the rest somehow disqualified (not great, not RPG, not published...). (Another problem is that I only have a very slight in console game musics - for some reason most of the titles, including most of the fan favorites, don't do a thing to me.)

[Chris]

Pretty fascinating. What would you say are your favourite game scores then?

[Blitz Lunar]

haha yes the results are almost entirely what i expected, with maybe the exception of Shoji Meguro (I would have expected someone like Kenji Ito instead; more of a household name.) I think the results are accurate, too.

[Another Soundscape]

Hi all! Thanks for participating in this survey. I think it's been very interesting. The article is now at last up, featuring the top 20 plus commentary:

http://squareenixmusic.com/features/topten/rpgcomposers.shtml

Any thoughts on the results? Expected or surprising? Positive surprises? Disappointments?

I'm personally pretty pleased and think the results fit quite well with what I expected, plus my own listings. I would have wanted at least one Western composer and would have switched Hamauzu with Sugiyama. But overall, pretty cool.

Anyway, sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy it. Hopefully do something like this again soon.

Interesting but definitely not unexpected. ;) I admit I probably have a very niche taste but it was nice getting it confirmed :P

[Chris]

Yeah, I'm kinda glad the results are relatively expected, since it was basically a survey of popular (if still fairly expert) opinion. But if anyone ever wants to do a feature like 'Top Ten Underlooked Composers', I'd always be happy to publish it. It reminds me I need to find some time to write more about Hoshino myself!

[Another Soundscape]

Yeah, I'm kinda glad the results are relatively expected, since it was basically a survey of popular (if still fairly expert) opinion. But if anyone ever wants to do a feature like 'Top Ten Underlooked Composers', I'd always be happy to publish it. It reminds me I need to find some time to write more about Hoshino myself!

If you want help writing about Hoshino or just some additional info/insight hook me up man! You can e-mail me at mattias [at] anosou [dot] com. Don also talks to me pretty much every night on IRC and can inform you how to get a hold of me there ;)

Overall I'm way too horny on the underlooked guys so I'm always up for writing about them!

[Jormungand]

Yep, those results were very expected, although I agree with Lunar about Meguro--Ito must certainly be more widely praised.
*coughnotthatItodeservestobeontop10anythingexceptp erhapstoptenmostrtisticallystuntedcomposerscough*

Koshiro's placement also surprises me. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me on a 'top ten VGM composers in general' list, but here? I guess I don't think of him as an RPG composer. I think of him for titles like Actraiser 1 & 2, Streets of Rage, or those mindless Wangan Midnight albums. I'm glad this curiosity was noted in the article.

Nice write-up Chris, it was a good experiment. I wish you could have gotten more participants, but the more communities you expand to the less knowledgeable about VGM people tend to be. The results would get increasingly homogeneous as more surveys are taken.

I also expected Saori Kobayashi's general lack of renown to exclude her from the list, even though I maintain that she's the best ever. :)

[Blitz Lunar]

But if anyone ever wants to do a feature like 'Top Ten Underlooked Composers', I'd always be happy to publish it. It reminds me I need to find some time to write more about Hoshino myself!

that'd be a little odd, i'm not even sure how that could work. unpopularity is very hard to measure and collect data on. it'd be tough to represent something like that factually in the same way as popularity. gathering the sum of public opinion on unpopular composers is sort of paradoxical in nature :D by definition that makes them more popular than the guys that aren't mentioned, thus less applicable than them for an article. otherwise we then have to have the top ten underlooked underlooked composers, and so on ~

that aside, the problem i'd anticipate is everyone suggesting all sorts of different guys, then ensuing debates on who's more unpopular than who. there's no small amount to pick from after all; how do you narrow it down? and if purely favouring unpopularity, where does it end? because you'd end up with john smith who composed for an rpg maker game once. hey, he's more unpopular than Motoaki Takenouchi after all!

perhaps i'm reading into this but you hopefully see my point haha. it's an interesting concept but a tricky thing to work in practice.

[Chris]

Actually, I just meant a solo feature, not an ensemble piece. Sorry that wasn't clear. So a single person with a very broad and detailed knowledge of VGM lists ten composers who they feel deserve more general recognition. I agree polling or surveying who is the most overlooked composer is ridiculous and beats the purpose.

[Blitz Lunar]

my bad. that makes a lot more sense. the only sane way to do it would be subjectively, indeed.
actually, i wouldn't mind trying something like that, myself, maybe even just privately.

[jdkluv]

mindless Wangan Midnight albums.

Some of my favourite VGM albums right there! And I'm not even a trancehead.

[Mika]

Hi all! Thanks for participating in this survey. I think it's been very interesting. The article is now at last up, featuring the top 20 plus commentary:

http://squareenixmusic.com/features/topten/rpgcomposers.shtml

Any thoughts on the results? Expected or surprising? Positive surprises? Disappointments?

I'm personally pretty pleased and think the results fit quite well with what I expected, plus my own listings. I would have wanted at least one Western composer and would have switched Hamauzu with Sugiyama. But overall, pretty cool.

Anyway, sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy it. Hopefully do something like this again soon.
Somewhat disappointing results, though that's also pretty much what I expected.

[saltlick]

1 - Nobuo Uematsu
2 - Kimitaka Matsumae (Jade Cocoon)
3 - Tomohito Nishiura (Dark Cloud)
4 - Masashi Hamauzu
5 - Some Western Composers

[Another Soundscape]

2 - Kimitaka Matsumae (Jade Cocoon)


Right on my brother.

[v1le]

Might as well do a top-5. There just isn't enough (J)RPG composers for good solid top-10.

1. Yoshitaka Hirota
2. Kenji Ito
3. Shoji Meguro
4. Konami Kukeiha Club (Genso Suikoden)
5. Miki Higashino

Special mention for Breath of Fire II & III sound teams.

[Andrew Evenstar]

1. Nobuo Uematsu
2. Yasnuori Mitsuda
3. Yoko Shimomura
4. Hitoshi Sakimoto
5. Masashi Hamauzu
6. Shoji Meguro

[Raizen1984]

Nevermind.

[Electivirus]

My personal top 5:

1. Masashi Hamauzu (Gotta love those flashy violin solos)
2. Yoko Shimomura
3. Hitoshi Sakimoto
4. Junichi Masuda
5. Nobuo Uematsu

Pretty standard. >_>

[Delusional]

1. Shoji Meguro
2. Yasunori Mitsuda
3. Yoshitaka Hirota
4. Junya Nakano
5. Masashi Hamauzu

Five RPG composers... many more in other genres! :P

They were all pretty close, though haha.